Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
i
^DEALERS OF THE
y^x^yzx&^^iX^X®^
ney purchased a location on Griswold street and
put up another magnificent edifice, the present
Whitney Opera House. He is also interested in
many of the leading opera houses throughout
the United States. It was he, together with an-
other Detroit capitalist, who created the first
electric light plant in Detroit and was among
the original promoters of the Bush Electric
Company. He is stockholder in several cor-
porations and is associated with the Masonic
benevolent societies in the capacity of one of the
leading lights.
C. J. WHITNEY.
THE WHITNEY-MARVIN MUSIC CO.,
Detroit.
The name of C. J. Whitney is a familiar one
to all Michiganders. He was one of the pioneers
of the music business in Michigan, his opera-
tions in this line covering a period of over forty
years and aggregating millions of dollars. This
coupled with his extensive theatrical interests and
real estate transactions have made him one of the
widest known business men in the United States.
Mr. Whitney is a native of Michigan and was
born in Avon in 1832. At an early age he left his
C. W. MARVIN.
native town and after one or two business ven-
tures opened up in Detroit. In this he was very
successful. Mr. Whitney has been interested in
many of the leading concerns of Detroit which
are associated with the progress of that city. In
1875 he purchased the site of old Fort Shelby
and erected an opera house which was a credit
to Detroit. The United States afterwards pur-
chased the corner for a post office and Mr. Whit-
C. W. Marvin.
Mr. C. W. Marvin, who with Mr. Whitney
compose the Whitney-Marvin Company, is a
native of Michigan. He has been engaged in
mercantile pursuits since his boyhood and his con-
nection with the music trade dates back thirteen
years when he was located at Ovid and Owasso.
He came to Detroit some five years ago and his
career has been very successful in that city. He
built up an enormous trade in pianos and musi-
cal wares. He is a tireless worker and kind
employer, and a keen judge of salesmanship in
others. He surrounded himself by men who
could readily grasp his methods and work in-
telligently in his behalf. The business of C. J.
Whitney & Co. and C. W. Marvin was consoli-
dated last spring under the name of the Whit-
ney-Marvin Music Co. The consolidation of
these two large houses makes one of the
strongest corporations in the State of Michigan,
and those persons acquainted with the two prin-
cipals need not be told there is nothing lacking
either in capital, hustle, ability and business
reputation to make the new house a greater
power in the world of trade. The pianos which
this firm handle principally are the Chickering,
Hallet & Davis, Chase Bros., Estey and Keller
Bros.
JAHES A. QUEST,
Burlington.
Probably there are few more popular men in
the western music trade than the subject of this
sketch. James A. Guest, the well known music
dealer, of Burlington, Iowa, was born at Lyons,
Wayne County, New York. He is of English
descent, his ancestors coming over in the ship
Delaware in the year 1686, and settling near
Philadelphia. At the age of 17 Mr. Guest
left school and enlisted August, 1862, as a
private in the 160th New York Vols., serving
hi's country faithfully until November, 1865.
He remembers very distinctly before his de-
parture for New Orleans of doing guard duty
where the New York Post Office building now
stands.
He was in the 19th Army Corps, and took
part in many battles, among the number Ft.
Bisland, Siege of Port Hudson, Sabine, Cross
Roads and Pleasant Hill, La., with Grant on the
James and with Sheridan at Winchester, Va.,
where he was severely wounded. He was com-
missioned Lieutenant by Gov. Fenton in 1865.
At the close of the war Mr. Guest found he
had saved about $400. He at once completed a
JAMES A. GUEST.
regular course at Ames Business.College, Syra-
cuse, N. Y. Entered the employ of Remsen &
Redgrave, Lyons, N. Y., as bookkeeper. He
removed to Belle Plaine, Iowa, in the autumn of
1866, continuing in the same business for two
years, at which time he began business for him-
self, as agent for the American Express Com-
pany, and was engaged in the insurance, piano,
organ, sewing machine and real estate business.
In 1874 he removed to Burlington, Iowa, and
succeeded to the old business of Lange & Van
Meter, dealers in pianos and organs.
In June, 1877, his establishment was burned
to the ground. His losses were great, but he
kept right on until now his business extends
over several States. His sales average about one
hundred thousand dollars a year.
Mr. Guest has long been identified with the
Masonic order; was chosen Grand Commander
of the Order of Knights Templar in the year of
1890.
He is now, after ten years of service in
the National Guard of Iowa, Colonel of the 2d
Infantry (twelve companies).
He has a beautiful and happy home, and life
altogether with him is full of sunshine and glad-
ness.
MRS.
W. C. PENFIELD,
Minneapolis.
The subject of our sketch, Mrs. W. C. Penfield,
was born in Cleveland, O., January 31, 1859.
While still a child she removed with her parents
to the prairie lands of Illinois, where they
bought a farm in Bureau County, near the village
of Princeton. There were no schools, except at
some distance, and a teacher was employed and
private instruction was given to her until the
age of ten, by which means she was enabled to
be in advance of pupils of the age of fifteen
years. At that early time the task of support-
ing herself, the race for life, was begun in earn-
est. Arranging for board with an older married
brother in the village, she secured office work,
such as folding papers and holding copy, until
later book-keeping was taken up, at which em-